Above the mage

Chapter 241 Forbidden Necromantic Spells and Maps

When Baruch regained consciousness, the last image he could recall was a pack of wolves swarming towards him, almost overwhelming him.

In that instant, he thought he could still hear Ryan's roar.

He then completely lost consciousness.

Along with consciousness, a pervasive pain and itching sensation returned throughout my entire body.

But Baruch not only did not hate this pain, he was even somewhat grateful for it.

Because pain can remind him that he is still alive.

The sheer pain still caused him to let out a few uncontrollable groans.

Then, Baruch heard a similarly weak but excited voice, "He's awake! He's awake!"

The next moment, Baruch struggled to open his eyes.

Inside the tent, two "acquaintances" were looking at him with concerned eyes.

Both of them looked a little excited.

"Can you speak? How are you feeling now?" After a moment, Gao De asked in a low voice.

"It's alright." Baruch found himself feeling weak all over, and even speaking a single sentence was incredibly difficult.

"Did you save me?" He could feel a remnant of life force flowing through his body.

This vitality clearly comes from the outside world.

"I'm just temporarily maintaining your vital signs. Your eventual recovery will depend on your own strong vitality and the healing medicine provided by Gillette Snowflake." God did not take credit for it.

As it turned out, all he did was cast [Temporary Goodness], injecting a temporary life force into Baruch, who was already severely injured and unconscious, to ensure that Baruch would not die before the temporary life force dissipated.

Baruch was able to pull through mainly due to his strong physique and the external healing medicine applied to him by Chief Snowflake.

"Thank you," Baruch said, his strength gradually returning and his speech becoming much more fluent. "How is the tribe?"

He asked.

Upon hearing this, Gilles Snowford, the patriarch of the Snowford clan, immediately turned red in the eyes.

Gilles Snowfield was saddened by the tribe's heavy casualties and moved by Baruch.

Having no relatives or friends, he nearly lost his life for the Snowfar clan, but the first thing he did after regaining consciousness was to care about his tribe.

How could such sincere feelings not be touching?

"The Snowver clan suffered more than a third of its entire population in this attack, and there are hardly any reindeer left," Gillette Snowver replied with difficulty.

"If you hadn't finally killed the alpha wolf, the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf, thus dispersing the beast tide, the Snowford clan would probably have been wiped out by this wave of beasts."

Gao De remained silent on the side.

He was already prepared to flee, because he knew that with the scale of this wave of snow wolf beasts, the Snowflake clan would definitely not survive.

Who knew that Baruch would descend from the heavens and single-handedly kill the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf amidst the "army of ten thousand"?

With the pack leaderless, the rampaging beast tide quickly dispersed like birds and beasts, and only then did he choose to return.

At that time, Baruch was already critically injured and on the verge of death after his life-or-death struggle with the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf.

If it weren't for the Icemane Tiger protecting him, Baruch might not have even survived until God cast [Borrowing Beauty] to save his life.

Be careful and don't overexert yourself.

These were the words God said to Baruch a week earlier when they parted ways outside Camp Snowver.

A prophecy.

A week later, Baruch nearly lost his life because of his "show-off" behavior.

"Thank you for your help." Gillette Snowfield's eyes were slightly red as he sincerely thanked Baruch.

"It's what I should do," Baruch said.

As he spoke, Baruch tried to get up by supporting himself with his hands.

But this movement immediately caused intense pain in all his muscles, making him groan and collapse again.

Only then did he realize that his physical condition had deteriorated to such an extent that although he had regained consciousness, he was almost unable to move.

"You can't move right now. You need to rest. With your injuries, you'll need to stay in bed for at least half a year to regain basic mobility," Gilles Snowford quickly stepped forward to help Baruch up and then gave him instructions.

Upon hearing the phrase "half a year," Baruch's expression changed drastically.

Gillette Snowfield thought Baruch felt that this was taking too long.

"This timeframe is based on your robust physique. In reality, given the severity of your injuries, anyone else would likely have died long ago, not even lasting until Gao De casts a spell to revive you, let alone survive."

"Your abdomen has been pierced by the fangs of the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf, and even your internal organs are injured. After you killed the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf and fell unconscious, the snow wolves that surrounded you further aggravated your injuries. If it weren't for your mount protecting you..."

When Gilles Snowflake said that, Baruch suddenly realized that he hadn't seen Ryan since he woke up.

His heart sank slightly. "Where's Ryan?"

"Ryan, Ryan!"

He called Ryan's name anxiously, but received no response.

Seeing Baruch's reaction, God felt a pang in his heart and told Baruch the news in a low voice: "Ryan sacrificed himself to protect you."

"How could this be? How could this be?" Baruch, who hadn't been defeated by the excruciating pain all over his body, seemed to be crushed by this news at this moment, and instantly became distraught.

He couldn't believe it. How could such a brave and fearless Icemane Tiger have been killed?

Even before he lost consciousness, the last sound he heard was Ryan's powerful roar.

"After you traded your life for the golden-eyed snow wolf and fell into a coma, the snow wolves pounced on you, wanting to kill you to avenge their leader. Ryan fought the pack alone to protect you, but there were simply too many snow wolves for him to handle."

Gao De recalled the awe-inspiring scene he witnessed on the hillside, his voice becoming quite hoarse.

Even a large number of ants can kill an elephant, let alone a wolf.

If it weren't for Ryan's sacrifice, Baruch would have been torn to pieces by those crazed snow wolves long ago. They would probably have even chewed up his bones and sucked out his marrow. He wouldn't be able to lie here and talk like this now.

Ryan traded his life for mine.

Baruch, who hadn't flinched even when facing a pack of wolves, burst into tears.

He cried silently, just shedding tears quietly.

Both Gao De and Gillette Snowflake were speechless, unsure of what to say to comfort this tough guy.

After a long while, Baruch wiped away his tears and said in a hoarse voice, "I can't lie here for half a year. I have very important things to do now."

Gillette Snowver's expression changed, and he said anxiously, "You absolutely must rest and recover! What could be more important than your health?"

Baruch shook his head, sighed softly, and then slowly said, "Actually, there's more to this beast tide than meets the eye; it wasn't purely formed naturally."

Gillette Snowfield's expression immediately changed upon hearing this. "It wasn't formed naturally. It was man-made?"

Baruch frowned deeply, whether due to the constant pain in his body or something else. "Yes, there are indeed signs of manipulation behind this snow wolf beast tide."

"First of all, although it is normal for beast tides to appear on the snowfield, you should also know, chieftain, that beast tides will not break out at the same time in a certain area."

"For example, if there are traces of snow hyena tides in this area, then snow wolf tides will not occur. These tides usually occur in rotation."

"But this time, during my exploration of the area, I discovered that almost all social predators showed signs of forming a beast tide."

"This is very illogical."

"Furthermore, these predators have become exceptionally ferocious and almost impossible to appease, whereas in a normal beast tide, the predators' emotions are primarily hunger, not ferocity."

"None of this conforms to the laws of nature, nor to the natural formation of a beast tide," Baruch's brows furrowed even deeper as he stated his conclusion: "Behind all this stands a mage skilled in beast taming."

Gillette Snowfield's heart skipped a beat. "You know who it is?"

Then it dawned on him: "The mages of the Snowfield Guardians have always been the most skilled beast tamers on the Snowfield. Could it be?"

Baruch nodded slightly, his expression somewhat unpleasant. "Yes, the mastermind behind this should be none other than the mage of our Snowfield Guardians."

"What's the point of doing this? What good does it do him?" Gillette Snowfield clenched his fists, suppressing his emotions, and asked again.

"In recent years, there have been rumors circulating within the Snowfield Guardians that a member has secretly mastered forbidden necromancy. This person may be the one who instigated the beast tide." Baruch said solemnly.

"Forbidden necromancy?!"

"right."

At this moment, even Gillette Snowflake's expression turned serious.

Because this is a very serious matter.

Necromancy is one of the eight major schools of magic.

However, among the eight major schools of magic, necromancy has always been at the bottom, making it the weakest school of magic.

But this is not because necromancy is ineffective.

Necromantic magic manipulates the energy of life and death, granting creatures additional vitality or drawing life energy from others to create undead creatures, or even alternative forms of "resurrection."

Therefore, necromancy has always been the most mysterious and bizarre of the eight major schools of magic, and it should never have fallen to its current status.

The reason for this is quite simple: the most powerful necromancy spells have been strictly prohibited and sealed away.

In particular, the act of creating undead creatures using necromancy, such as manipulating corpses, is an absolutely forbidden art.

Because, to create undead creatures, you first need "fresh" corpses.

Because of this, some people will inevitably take risks and cause killings, leading to chaos.

Therefore, the high-ring mages quickly reached a consensus to classify all necromancy spells with unstable elements as forbidden spells and to regard the practice of forbidden spells as a serious crime.

According to Gaode's understanding, necromancy can be compared to "demonic techniques" in fantasy novels. They are undoubtedly powerful, but too "brutal".

By banning the "brutal" aspect, it's like cutting off one's own arm, naturally becoming weaker.

"For a long time, mages from outside the North have been entering to practice forbidden necromancy. I never expected that even people from the North would start now, and that they would come from the Snowfield Guardians," Gilles Snowford murmured.

In the outside world, once it is discovered that a mage has mastered forbidden necromancy, the official law enforcement will take down these mages with the greatest force.

However, in the North, there is no law enforcement organization, so naturally no one will "meddle," and doing these things carries a sense of unbridled freedom.

Moreover, in the North, tribes are wiped out every day. Even if a necromancer goes berserk and slaughters one or two tribes in order to practice forbidden arts, it won't cause much of a stir.

This led to the North being regarded as a "holy land" by necromancers who practiced forbidden arts.

This is one of the reasons why the people of the North are so hostile to outsiders.

"I must take this news back and report it to the sect so that they can take action and find the mastermind as soon as possible. Otherwise, if this drags on any longer, who knows how many more tribes will be implicated," Baruch said very seriously.

Gillette Snowfield was well aware of the seriousness of the matter, but he still shook his head and said, "It's not a question of whether I'll allow it or not, but whether you can do it right now."

"Forget about returning to your sect, you'll have difficulty getting up for at least a month. If you don't believe me, try getting up again and see if you can succeed."

Upon hearing this, Baruch, unconvinced, tried to get up.

However, his body was like a broken piece of porcelain. Even though it had been stitched up, it couldn't withstand the slightest bit of stress and would collapse with the slightest effort.

He tried three or four times without success and finally gave up in despair.

Is there really no other way?

Baruch felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

Then, he turned to look at Gao De standing to the side and suddenly thought of the "character" that Gao De had shown during the few days he spent with him. A thought flashed through his mind and a ray of hope suddenly shone.

He's a follower of the natural religion.

"God," Baruch called out.

"I'm here," God thought Baruch needed something and quickly stepped forward to reply.

"Can I ask you for a favor?"

"Please," Gao De immediately realized, "You want me to take this message back and report it to the Snowfield Guardians?"

"Yes," Baruch nodded seriously, "I know this has nothing to do with you, but I really can't find anyone else to help me right now."

The Snowford clan had just encountered a wild animal tide, and their reindeer, the tribe's most important food source, were almost gone, making it difficult for them to survive the winter.

With himself in dire straits, Baruch naturally had no way to ask others for help with this matter.

It seems that only Gaode Maps can help.

"Where is your sect's headquarters located? And how far is it from here?" Gao De thought for a moment and asked the key question.

"The Snowfield Guardians' headquarters is far from here, but our sect actually has a branch 400 kilometers away. You just need to find that branch. As for the location of the branch..." Now it was Baruch's turn to be in a dilemma, not knowing how to describe it.

This is a very real problem.

Gao De was an outsider, unlike him who was familiar with the North, and even less familiar with the Snowfield Guardians.

At such a great distance, in a snowy plain with few buildings and people, it would be nothing short of a pipe dream for Gaode to find the branch with just a few words.

"Wait a minute." Gillette Snowflake, who was standing nearby, also noticed Baruch's predicament.

He thought for a moment, then rummaged through a box in the tent and pulled out a piece of animal skin, handing it to Baruch.

"The tribe is in a very bad situation right now, and we are severely short-handed. I really can't leave or spare any manpower. Otherwise, given your great kindness to the Snowver clan, it is only right that we Snowver help with this matter."

"That's all I can offer right now."

Gao De glanced at the animal skin subconsciously.

There were many intricate lines carefully drawn with charcoal and paint, including some special symbols and markings.

He was startled, realizing what the animal hide was:

It was exactly what he had been seeking: a map of the North drawn and marked by the Snowfar clan!

(End of this chapter)